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little big thing at every mind matters. This is scientific American's 60 second science.

I'm Christopher Intagata.

W warmer oceans are putting stress on corals and causing many of them to turn white or bleach.

But some corals under stress are instead becoming strangely colorful, turning brilliant

neon pink, yellow, purple or blue.

They give this very vibrant coloration

which really blows you away.

York Viedemann heads the University of Southampton's

Coral Reef Laboratory in the UK.

He said he was seeing photos and reports of these brightly colored corals,

but no one knew what was happening,

so his lab experimentally bleached corals to find out.

First, though, it's important to understand that corals aren't really a single

organism. They're a symbiotic duo, a partnership between an algae and a coral.

So it's two completely different organisms working together to create something

which they couldn't achieve by themselves.

The algae live inside the coral where they get shelter nutrients, and the corals reap the benefits of photosynthesis.

But when the scientists exposed corals to warmer water, they watched, as the coral's symbiotic partners, the algae,

slowly abandon the coral skeleton.

Usually, that's what results in bleaching.

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